Q: What can cause my OS10 operating system to become corrupted.

I think you might need to provide more detail before anyone can try to help

In all events back up your computer before proceeding with any attempt to remedy the situation or return the software to a factory state.

Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac - Apple Support

Any software outside of OS X is most likely the first place to look.

Any and All Cleaning or Keeping software is a tremendous deficit to Mac OS and should be removed.

Any and All Anti-Virus commercial or otherwise has also been cited on these forums as a destabilizing agent that has not real benefit to a mac user and should be thoroughly disposed of

Any and All 3rd party networking utility that opposes to sniff, snitch or manage outside of OS X should be removed

Any and All 3rd party hardware management software outside of OS X can also contribute to less than adequate functionality.

Installing OS X on an external hard drive with inadequate speed or any hard drive that is failing can contribute to poor functionality.

Using Disk Utility to verify or repair disks - Apple Support

In some cases disabling the File Vault security can improve the functionality of the OS, if nothing else if all these other suggestions fail try disabling in and test to see if functionality is restored.

Use FileVault to encrypt the startup disk on your Mac - Apple Support

if the OS needs to be restored to a factory state see this article

OS X: About OS X Recovery - Apple Support